CHAPTER V
"ARDATH"—THE STORY OF A DEAD SELF—THE WONDERFUL CITY OF AL-KYRIS—THE MISSION OF THE BOOK
In no work produced by her busy pen has Miss
Corelli given such range to her imagination, to her
love of the beautiful and fantastic, as in "Ardath."
This, her fourth book, abounds in wonderful accounts
of a strange people in a strange place.
When she sets a scene of barbaric splendor in the
city of Al-Kyris, she reaches great descriptive
heights; she tells, indeed, a tale of beauty, of horror,
and of extraordinary amours, whose like can
nowhere be found, look where you will. "Ardath"
stands alone—a prose poem and a startlingly
vivid narrative in one. "I have read it,"
wrote Mr. Bentley (referring to the work in manuscript
form), "with wonder that one small head
could hold it all."
That the authoress has a quick and appreciative eye for the picturesque, her most bitter detractor will not care to deny; she loves to write of birds and flowers, field and forest, golden sunshine and blue waters. She exhibits a passion for the bygone*
